It seems fair to say that the SNP’s shady, ugly coup d’etwats yesterday hasn’t gone down massively well. Social media was awash in pictures of cut-up membership cards and resignation letters, and some of the most moderate voices in the commentariat also decried the stitch-ups of Joanna Cherry and James Dornan.
The NEC meeting which forced through the new rules was held in secret and nobody knows who was present or who voted for what. Indeed, even the identities of the NEC’s members are largely not public knowledge.
Ladies and gentlemen, meet the new World Speed-Reading Champion:
Almost 1200 words in 15 seconds is mighty impressive going in anyone’s book. (Either that or it’s REALLY slow for a 12-word tweet.) But we wondered if there might be any other reason why Mrs Angus Robertson wouldn’t want people reading that article.
We’ve just been out for our evening constitutional in the relatively cool night air (Bath sweltered at an oppressive 30C today and Bear Patrol was pretty gruelling), and we thought readers might be interested in what we saw.
The city has observed lockdown with great diligence, as we’ve previously documented, and to be honest we’re not sufficiently familiar with the latest rules to say it wasn’t still doing so tonight. But a nearby park, around 9.30pm, was a disconcerting scene.
We’ve often said on Wings Over Scotland that we really don’t mind if journalists are biased. Everyone is biased, including us – we’d just rather people stopped pretending to be impartial when they weren’t. But what we do really hate about the Scottish media is just how astonishingly bad at its job it is.
A particularly striking example arose recently.
Pretty much every newspaper and broadcaster in the country carried the sad story of former Labour MP Paul Sweeney‘s fall from besuited lawmaker to skint benefits claimant. And yet not a single one of them asked the question that literally every single reader of the story would have been shouting at their screen.
We’ve been fobbed off again with another generic response from the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service, which again wholly fails to answer our simple and legitimate journalistic question, and to which nobody has been prepared to sign their name.
(We should also note in passing that not a single Scottish newspaper appears to have followed up on the story in that last link except the Sunday National, btw.)
But this one is considerably more disturbing. You can read it below if you want to know what shameless, transparent corruption sounds like.
Our ongoing quest to discover just who is actually willing to take responsibility for the actions of the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) with regard to the trial of Alex Salmond and its aftermath took another diversion yesterday when we received a reply from HM Inspectorate of Prosecutions in Scotland.
It had sounded like a promising lead. After all, HMIPS’ apparent purpose is to “inspect the operation” of COPFS, “improve the way COPFS serves the public” and “make COPFS more accountable”, all of which are exactly what we were after.
We’ve received a response from the Scottish Government to our follow-up letter of last week regarding the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service. It’s attached below.
With commendable swiftness, we’ve received a reply to our letter of earlier this week to the Cabinet Secretary for Justice. You can read it in full below (click to enlarge).
Sadly, however, it’s precisely the sort of evasion we expected, and it is not acceptable.
We thought readers might be interested in a small update on yesterday’s post. As we told you, Graham Shields – the Head of Strategic Communications and Engagement at the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service who fobbed off our complaint about newspapers enabling the identification of sexual assault accusers – was the editor of the Evening Times until he was let go in December 2017.
Which is just two months after this happened:
So you’d think that if anyone knew what jigsaw identification looked like, he would.
It’s now more than a month since this site revealed the widespread breach by a number of Scottish journalists/newspapers – the most prominent being Dani Garavelli of Scotland On Sunday and Tortoise Media – of the legally-protected anonymity of one of the accusers in the Alex Salmond trial.
Until last week we’d had no response from the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) beyond an initial acknowledgement, and no action of any kind had apparently been taken against any of the perpetrators, even though the pro-Salmond blogger Craig Murray has been cited for prosecution for allegedly similar breaches.
Alarmingly, all of the information identifying the woman was (and at the time of writing this article is) still publicly available in their articles, exposing her to possible danger. So last week we got in touch with the COPFS to seek clarification.
Blackhack on The Only Notes That Really Count: “I never paid any money in, but if I did I’d be signing that pronto.” Jul 9, 20:23
Southernbystander on The Interests Of The Many: “No. People are just pleased the England team are for once playing some decent football and we have one player…” Jul 9, 20:05
Rev. Stuart Campbell on Your Call Is Important To Us: “I have not. I’d redact it with a black box if I’d done that.” Jul 9, 19:57
James Barr Gardner on Your Call Is Important To Us: “Mallaidh is an Irish and Scottish Gaelic spelling of the name “Molly,” which itself is a traditional pet form of…” Jul 9, 18:31
DelayedResponse on Your Call Is Important To Us: “That’s incredibly frustrating – it’s amazing how often you can get a vague response like that. Hopefully they’ll actually get…” Jul 9, 17:48
twathater on Your Call Is Important To Us: “The ENDLESS mindless responses that all say the same thing “Fuck Off” we’re not interested in addressing your complaints, even…” Jul 9, 17:42
Hatey McHateface on Your Call Is Important To Us: ““Mallaidh” is a very nice Gaelic female name. So probably a real person, possibly a real woman, but according to…” Jul 9, 16:24
A2 on Your Call Is Important To Us: “Too be fair (as we say) You did complain about the rapidity of the previous. “If we twiddle our thumbs…” Jul 9, 16:14
100%Yes on Your Call Is Important To Us: “I would presume, you likely to hear from copfs after the SNP responds in 21 days to these summons.” Jul 9, 16:00
Andy Wiltshire on Your Call Is Important To Us: “Do we know who ‘Mallaidh’ is? A real person, I naively assume.” Jul 9, 15:59
Hatey McHateface on The Interests Of The Many: “WGF is a gust of fresh air compared with the disgraceful and disgusting poison perpetrated by the teatowel wearers and…” Jul 9, 15:42
Morgatron on Response Level Upgrade: “I just wonder if they would arrest you or take you up in front of a Judge in such a…” Jul 9, 15:41
Hatey McHateface on Your Call Is Important To Us: ““avenues of justice” In Scotland these tend to be more wynds than avenues. Unlit at night, deserted, twisting to and…” Jul 9, 15:35
100%Yes on Your Call Is Important To Us: “When your being asked to “Please Hold” from the previous letters I would consider that statement as progress.” Jul 9, 15:23
Captain Caveman on The Interests Of The Many: ““Try fucking off somewhere else.” Ooooh Fatso! 😀 I doubt you can even stand up straight unaided, let alone blow…” Jul 9, 14:18
Confused on The Interests Of The Many: “we know where you live now, main; the nonce-police won’t be able to protect you forever https://archive.ph/qVBBR – aren’t policeman…” Jul 9, 14:03
Confused on The Interests Of The Many: “one day, soon … www.youtube.com/watch?v=hpuDsFSd8YA wir aw jock tamsons bairns” Jul 9, 14:01
Hatey McHateface on The Interests Of The Many: “Seriously, TURABDIN? No mention of the events in Ir@n? How ethnically and religiously diverse are that lot?” Jul 9, 13:50
Oneliner on The Interests Of The Many: “Whilst there may be some dubiety attached to the political veracity of some of its contributors, each year The National…” Jul 9, 13:46
Hatey McHateface on The Interests Of The Many: “On the subject of ethnic diversity, I half watched near 20 minutes of the Canada-Morocco game before I twigged that…” Jul 9, 13:37
Hatey McHateface on The Interests Of The Many: “@ Alf Baird says: 9 July, 2026 at 12:40 pm I don’t do Facebook, Alf. How odd that you do.…” Jul 9, 13:33
TURABDIN on The Interests Of The Many: “i have an aversion to jingoistic idolatrous nationalism of the flag waving sort….i was born in a country where such…” Jul 9, 13:26
James on The Interests Of The Many: ““…try spellcheck….” Try fucking off somewhere else.” Jul 9, 13:24
Alf Baird on The Interests Of The Many: ““Tell us what happens next” There are only two possible outcomes with colonialism, Hatey, as stated at the end of…” Jul 9, 12:40
Marie on The Interests Of The Many: “I agree Turabdin. It’s not normal to have another country’s achievements thrown in your face via media. I’m thankful that…” Jul 9, 12:29
Captain Caveman on The Interests Of The Many: ““Ye wad shuirly fund gey mair ‘morons’ tae the poleetical richt, gied the condeetion o the Western libeal-imperial pouers!” Try…” Jul 9, 12:28
Hatey McHateface on The Interests Of The Many: ““finally, once the people figure out they have been duped, ‘the national party disintegrates’” “Finally”, Alf? No way can that…” Jul 9, 12:17
